Skidmarks – Squished?

Behold: the future

It’s a cute, fuzzy lil’ harbinger of the end of Life as we Know it: the Google self-driving car. Seriously. Right now you may think of it as a curiosity, a gimmick, but it could alter the physical, economic and cultural landscape of America in a way we haven’t seen since … well … the invention of the car in the first place. But what will that do to poor little us on our motorcycles?

U.C. Berkeley student Levandowsky in 2005 with his creation. Photo by Gabe Ets-Hokin

First, let’s make sure you understand how far autonomous vehicles have come in 10 years, just in case you’re one of these people who bases technical arguments on things you learned reading ancient back issues of Popular Mechanics while waiting for the dentist. Back in 2005, I wrote a story about Anthony Levandowsky, the student leading the U.C. Berkeley team running a motorcycle in DARPA’s Grand Challenge, an off-road race between robotic vehicles. The article has been swept down the MO rabbit hole (although a Kawasaki enthusiast forum reposted it before it was wiped, at least one example of copyright infringement benefitting mankind) but the crudeness of early autonomous vehicles is remarkable. The Blue Team robot, a tiny pitbike that could barely get around a small track without hitting anything, is comical to watch in action, even if it did have amazing technology packed into it. It’s like watching a drunk and mentally handicapped invisible teenager ride an XR70 across your lawn. Even the winning vehicles that year seemed confused, slowly picking their way across a smooth desert.

The winner that year was a blue Volkswagen Touareg named Stanley, engineered by a Stanford University team led by Sebastian Thrun. After the Grand Challenge, Thrun, Levandowsky and other geniuses kept working on autonomous vehicles, but this time for Google instead of the Defense Department.

By 2013, Google’s fleet of autonomous test vehicles had driven – with little or no human intervention – hundreds of thousands of miles on public roads. New Yorker reporter Burkhard Bilger described Levandowsky’s Lexus as it drove him from Berkeley to Palo Alto (Levandowsky’s daily commute):

“Levandowski kept a laptop open beside him as we rode. Its screen showed a graphic view of the data flowing in from the sensors: a Tron-like world of neon objects drifting and darting on a wireframe nightscape. Each sensor offered a different perspective on the world. The laser provided three-dimensional depth: its 64 beams spun around 10 times per second, scanning 1.3 million points in concentric waves that began eight feet from the car. It could spot a 14-inch object a hundred and sixty feet away.”

This is what robotic cars ‘see’ as they navigate the roadways. Notice it’s not looking at billboards or fast-food signs. Photo by Google.

Last year, Google announced it was building a test fleet of about 100 of the cute little bug-eyed prototype electric self-driving cars you see in the lead photo. They’re limited to 25 mph and have a 100-mile range. Inside are two seats, a small storage compartment, a computer screen … and that’s about it. A modest first step, but how many years will those 100 cars have to drive around on the busy, challenging roads of the San Francisco Bay Area before Google perfects robot vehicles? Five? 10? Not 20, I’d bet.

Futurist, Zack Kanter wrote a compelling blog entry about the impact this will have on the world. Combining this technology with the new “ride-sharing” craze could pretty much eliminate the need for privately owned cars. If you could go anywhere you wanted in an on-demand private transportation pod for a few pennies a mile, and didn’t have to worry about parking, gas, insurance, theft, tires or the hundred other hassles associated with car ownership, why would you want to spend the thousands and thousands of dollars to own a car, a car that will probably spend 96% of its time parked, according to a report issued by Morgan Stanley Research. Seriously, why?

The economic changes brought by shrinking the personal-transport fleet 90% could be staggering. City streets and highways will narrow to single or double lanes. Parking garages and lots can be converted to other uses, and cities can get much denser by converting garages to in-law apartments (and I firmly believe only in-laws should be made to live in them). Look at an aerial view of your urban area and estimate how much of it is given over to cars – roads, automotive dealerships and other businesses, parking lots and garages – and subtract 9/10ths of it. Suddenly, even downtown Seattle or Chicago could be verdant and spacious.

Kanter’s predictions are both dystopic and utopic. Ten million driving and other automotive/transportation jobs will disappear, but miles and miles of city streets will be clear of useless, ugly parked cars. Billion-dollar corporate institutions will be bankrupted, but millions of traffic accidents will dwindle to a relative handful, saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars in property damage and human injuries. Traffic jams will become a memory – as will buses, subways and streetcars.

A close-up of GM’s “Futurama” exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair. The massive diorama, prophesying American cities in 1960, envisioned autonomous vehicles. What I want to know is this: where’s my jet pack?

Kanter says this will happen by 2025, which seems hasty to me, but he could be right. Tesla says its cars will have 90 percent self-driving capability by 2020, and Mercedes already offers so many driving aids the line between autonomous and manual operation is blurry. My own Ford C-Max offered the option of self-parking for parallel spaces, which no self-respecting native San Franciscan would ever want. In San Francisco, women deliver their babies right into a crib parked parallel between two other babies, usually on the first try unless their husbands are watching, in which case they blame him for “making me nervous.”

So what happens to motorcycles? Will we be ground into a powdery mush beneath the cute, grinning visages of Uber-labeled Google cars?

I don’t think so. I share Kanter’s chirpy optimism. The main enemy of motorcyclists, besides ourselves, of course, are careless, drunk, drugged, insane, asleep or just plain oblivious drivers. The requirements to get a driver’s license in most states are laughably lax, and once you take the test, you never have to take it again, even if it was in 1941. There might be a steep and painful learning curve, but once the software is debugged, robotic cars will rarely, if ever, cause injury to a human being.

“Autonomous cars have no bad habits,” former Nevada DMV spokesman Tom Jacobs told me. Human drivers have “the illusion of attention – they’re looking for other cars, not motorcycles.” We’re less than one out of 100 vehicles, even in states with lots of motorcycles, and drivers don’t see what they don’t expect – look up the film The Invisible Gorilla if you want to know why.

Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval after a trip in a self-driving car in 2012. Nevada was the first state to license self-driving cars, on the provision that the car buys $15 worth of keno tickets. Photo by Tom Jacobs

Most importantly to motorcyclists, the sensors, software and other equipment in development are incredibly sensitive and designed to err on the side of caution – in the mind of a robot car, motorcycles will be a fast-moving bicyclist or pedestrian and will get treated with the respect and attention we deserve but seldom get. Contrast this with how we’re perceived by the average motorist – crazed daredevils who sort of deserve whatever happens to us. Robots don’t judge.

So I don’t think robot cars present a threat to us … directly. What I am worried about is the threat we represent to ourselves. Motor-vehicle death numbers will plummet as more and more autonomous vehicles get on the road (and it won’t just be passenger cars – you can imagine the advantage this will give to tractor-trailers, buses and other long-distance transportation modes) and at some point will be mostly motorcycle fatalities. That will present a plump and inviting target to do-good legislators and bureaucrats that could lead to motorcycling being severely restricted or banned. Yikes.

Hopefully, we’ll see motorcycle fatalities drop in the coming decades, helped by better equipment, better training, shrinking numbers of riders and of course, the benevolence of our new robot overlords. Hopefully, the numbers will get low enough that our presence will be tolerated. Like it or not, our privilege to ride will always be controlled by the non-riding majority we share the roads with.

I imagine I’ll be standing in the checkout line at a grocery store sometime in 2035, holding my Arai nano-helmet ($14,399) and wearing my Aerostich reactive-armored suit ($27,450), while the other people in line give me the hairy eyeball. But the middle-aged woman in front of me, hovercart filled with squirming kids and groceries, will chat me up. “What do you ride?” she’ll ask, and I’ll tell her about my 10-year-old salvage-title Harley Livewire. “Oh! A Harley! My uncle had one of those. He used to give me rides when I was a little girl. I can’t imagine driving myself around. I wish I had the nerve to do that.”

Then again, maybe things won’t change that much.

Gabe Ets-Hokin is a visiting scholar at the Bulgarian Institute for Pirogis and Draft Beer and author of the upcoming novel Girl with the Penguin Tattoo.

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darthatect

Motorcyclists won’t be left out of this dystopian vision.

Motorcycles will, along with evolution of autos, become more like Segways, and we’ll just be passengers on those, as well. We’ll just look cooler, still with jackets and helmets…fully connected to the wifi world. Only, two tandem wheels. Self-balancing, just like the self-balancing unicycles that are now available.

It won’t be pretty, but it will be safer. No more wheelie popping kids, either.

However, our Harley vests and boots will look dated.

GreggJ

I am looking forward to self-driving cars. I hate it when I’m speeding down the highway with the sun at my back and I see drivers squinting in my direction on the crossroads with cell-phones stuck to their ears “looking” to see if they can make it across. Or better yet, looking down in their laps with both hands firmly on the phone, and then glancing up briefly before they hit the accelerator. Kinda takes the fun out of it.

Peter Cao

— Would anyone or any organization like to associate himself/herslef/itself with fascism crimes? Would anyone like to be educated by someone who’s misbehavior has brought into our lives anti-humanity crimes which are fascism by nature and which had endangered human lives? Would anyone like to be living in a society under the jurisdiction of some malicious and cowardice officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara county, DA? or FBI?) who hided their identities from us while colluding with those fascists to cover up their fascism crimes and at the same time retaliate on victims?
……………………………………………………………………

But how could such a simple campus atrocity case turned into a series of fascism crimes for over a decade long which got more and more innocent people involved? — Fascism prevails and miscarriage of justice is going on; — not all by my capability could handle;
__________________________________

— Such fascism crimes have to be disciplined by laws and such fascists like Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun and the likes have to be brought to justice; they can’t escape from it;

Peter Cao

— http://t.cn/R7F1yQ0 attention to the 7 photo evidence — Here is the link to this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler’s website — http://t.cn/RPLEG7D — Would anyone with a single bit of sense of humanity and at least a fair education go to the extreme of cruelness to injure the body of another human being to that extent? — How could such a criminal suspect as Gabriele Scheler is be left alone by judicial authorities?

Peter Cao

Miscarriage of justice is one horrible horrible thing that could ever happen to human society; it could result in the victims being further victimized; it could produce retaliatory fascism crimes directly from the judicial system;

That day, a man named JayJones argued in comments part of an article titled “Get schools out of the 1890s” by Mr. Newt Gingrich on cnn dot com, that — “Apparently they are tolerated in human society, since neither of them have been arrested or imprisoned. What is your definition of fascist?” —

======== My Answer =======

Dear Mr. JayJones,

— Miscarriage of justice is going on, and that’s why neither Sebastian Thrun nor Gabriele Scheler have been arrested or imprisoned so far, while I as a victim am further victimized by their retaliatory fascism crimes; the case remain mystified and incomplete so far; and at this stage, the real problems are coming from the judicial system; Justice has not been done;

— The fact that Gabriele Scheler or Sebastian Thrun have not been arrested or imprisoned so far does not mean they are tolerated in human society; at least I know San Francisco State University fired Gabriele Scheler and Stanford partially fired Sebastian Thrun due to their involvement into such fascism crimes; and I am pretty sure both of them would be universally rejected as more and more people learn the fascism nature in their crimes;

— As I said before: “We are all made of human beings; you have your judgement, and we all have our own; Anybody with normal intelligence could easily figure out that there is something seriously wrong going on in this case;” I wonder who’s the officer handling Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun’s case? How would they explain the brutality from Gabriele Scheler on my body as evidenced in those 7 photos, in the first place? — http://t.cn/R7F1yQ0 —

— What are the real identities of judicial officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County, DA? or FBI?) handling Sebastian Thrun’s case and Gabriele Scheler’s recanted testimony? How can I see their materials to accuse/curse me and to mess up the case? Can you or anybody let us know? I have serious questions to ask them;

Peter Cao

Here is the statement of how miscarriage of justice is carrying on in Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s case, written in Chinese characters; save them for later use, please;
_______________________

— 有人能让大家知道那些后来处理本案司法官员（namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) 的真实身份么？我有严肃的问题要问他们；

— Again, ZZZ/YYY/VVV are judicial officers (from Santa Clara DA? or from FBI? etc.), but not mafia, or are they? their practices as judicial officers have to withstand the scrutiny from the public; By law, they have to show us their real identities; they can’t hide their real identities from us for ever;

Peter Cao

— The point is, though I am a victim while Gabriele Scheler a criminal suspect, my life has been underhandedly cursed and systematically retaliated by fascism powers behind Sebastian Thrun for over 10 years without an end ever since Gabriele Scheler recanted her testimony and falsely accused me at somewhere unknown to me in the judicial system; Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s follow up retaliatory crimes had been collateralled by some officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) who’s handling Scheler’s recanted testimony in the judicial system, and who hided their identities from me during these many years till today; Neither did I ever see their materials to accuse me, nor did I get a chance to defend myself; i.e. their underhanded retaliatory fascism crimes are coming from the judicial system, as well; — Miscarriage of justice is going on;

Peter Cao

Fascism may not exist in everywhere, but could come from anywhere;
_______________________________________________

— It is a common sense to all of us that … “Protecting human lives and their basic rights of living supersedes teaching, doing business or doing research”; … Before this case clarified, and those fascists along with this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun (who’s been advocated here) being concurred, I bet nobody would like to play up personnel associated with fascism crimes, the likes of Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler, nor cover up their fascism crimes and everybody has the obligation to fight against such fascism crimes;

I wish everybody relevant here would help push forward and clarify this decade long criminal case and find justice to such anti-humanity crimes along with such fascists as Sebastian Thrun and this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler are;

Wouldn’t anybody here deserve to know the truth of this decade long criminal case which is fascism by nature? What’s going on here?
_______________________________________________

Isn’t it a basic instinct that embedded into the spirits of us all to spontaneously fight against such anti-humanity crimes?

Peter Cao

It is a tough task to fight against such anti-humanity crimes which are fascism by nature; As a victim of a series of fascism crimes associated with criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler, Sebastian Thrun and the likes, what I posted on the web are no more than facts, facts those fascists I challenged dare never publicly deny; I bet such of their fascism crimes would not be tolerated anywhere in human society; If anyone disagree, especially those in my public challenge, please give us a candid answer right here on this board, which part in my statements is not base upon facts? What’s going on here?

— equal opportunity and freedom of speech 🙂

Peter Cao

It is a tough task to fight against such anti-humanity crimes which are fascism by nature; As a victim of a series of fascism crimes associated with criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler, Sebastian Thrun and the likes, what I posted on the web are no more than facts, facts those fascists I challenged dare never publicly deny; I bet such of their fascism crimes would not be tolerated anywhere in human society; If anyone disagree, especially those in my public challenge, please give us a candid answer right here on this board, which part in my statements is not base upon facts? What’s going on here?

— equal opportunity and freedom of speech 🙂

Peter Cao

And, at this stage, the most confusing part of this case is: — What are the real identities of judicial officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, who must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) handling Sebastian Thrun’s case and this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler’s recanted testimony? How can I see their materials to accuse/curse me and to mess up this case?

Can anyone here help us know? I have serious questions to ask them;

………………… P.S. …………………

— ZZZ/YYY/VVV are judicial officers (from Santa Clara DA? or from FBI? etc.), but not mafia, or are they? their practices as judicial officers have to withstand the scrutiny from the public; By law, they have to show us their real identities; they can’t hide their real identities from us for ever;

Would anyone like to be educated by someone who’s misbehavior has brought into our lives anti-humanity crimes which are fascism by nature and which had endangered human lives? Would anyone like to be living in a society under the jurisdiction of some malicious and cowardice officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara county, DA? or FBI?) who hided their identities from us while colluding with those fascists to cover up their fascism crimes and at the same time retaliate on victims?
……………………………………………………………………

But how could such a simple campus atrocity case turned into a series of fascism crimes for over a decade long which got more and more innocent people involved? — Fascism prevails and miscarriage of justice is going on; — not all by my capability could handle;
__________________________________

— Such fascism crimes have to be disciplined by laws and such fascists like Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun and the likes have to be brought to justice; they can’t escape from it;

Peter Cao

It is a tough task to fight against such anti-humanity crimes which are fascism by nature; As a victim of a series of fascism crimes associated with criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler, Sebastian Thrun and the likes, what I posted on the web are no more than facts, facts those fascists I challenged dare never publicly deny; I bet such of their fascism crimes would not be tolerated anywhere in human society; If anyone disagree, especially those in my public challenge, please give us a candid answer right here on this board, which part in my statements is not base upon facts? What’s going on here?

— equal opportunity and freedom of speech, please 🙂

Peter Cao

— http://t.cn/R7F1yQ0 attention to the 7 photo evidence — Here is the link to this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler’s website — http://t.cn/RPLEG7D — Would anyone with at least a bit of sense of humanity and at least a fair education go to the extreme of cruelness to injure the body of another human being to that extent? — How could such a criminal suspect as Gabriele Scheler is be left alone by judicial authorities?

Peter Cao

Miscarriage of justice is one horrible horrible thing that could ever happen to human society; it could result in the victims being further victimized; it could produce retaliatory fascism crimes directly from the judicial system;

That day, a man named JayJones argued in comments part of an article titled “Get schools out of the 1890s” by Mr. Newt Gingrich on cnn dot com, that — “Apparently they are tolerated in human society, since neither of them have been arrested or imprisoned. What is your definition of fascist?” —

======== My Answer =======

Dear Mr. JayJones,

— Miscarriage of justice is going on, and that’s why neither Sebastian Thrun nor Gabriele Scheler have been arrested or imprisoned so far, while I as a victim am further victimized by their retaliatory fascism crimes; the case remain mystified and incomplete so far; and at this stage, the real problems are coming from the judicial system; Justice has not been done;

— The fact that Gabriele Scheler or Sebastian Thrun have not been arrested or imprisoned so far does not mean they are tolerated in human society; at least I know San Francisco State University fired Gabriele Scheler and Stanford partially fired Sebastian Thrun due to their involvement into such fascism crimes; and I am pretty sure both of them would be universally rejected as more and more people learn the fascism nature in their crimes;

— As I said before: “We are all made of human beings; you have your judgement, and we all have our own; Anybody with normal intelligence could easily figure out that there is something seriously wrong going on in this case;” I wonder who’s the officer handling Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun’s case? How would they explain the brutality from Gabriele Scheler on my body as evidenced in those 7 photos, in the first place? —http://t.cn/R7F1yQ0 —

— What are the real identities of judicial officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County, DA? or FBI?) handling Sebastian Thrun’s case and Gabriele Scheler’s recanted testimony? How can I see their materials to accuse/curse me and to mess up the case? Can you or anybody let us know? I have serious questions to ask them;

Peter Cao

Here is the statement of how miscarriage of justice is carrying on in Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s case, written in Chinese characters; save them for later use, please;
_______________________

— 有人能让大家知道那些后来处理本案司法官员（namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) 的真实身份么？我有严肃的问题要问他们；

— Again, ZZZ/YYY/VVV are judicial officers (from Santa Clara DA? or from FBI? etc.), but not mafia, or are they? their practices as judicial officers have to withstand the scrutiny from the public; By law, they have to show us their real identities; they can’t hide their real identities from us for ever;

Peter Cao

— The point is, though I am a victim while Gabriele Scheler a criminal suspect, my life has been underhandedly cursed and systematically retaliated by fascism powers behind Sebastian Thrun for over 10 years without an end ever since Gabriele Scheler recanted her testimony and falsely accused me at somewhere unknown to me in the judicial system; Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s follow up retaliatory crimes had been collateralled by some officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) who’s handling Scheler’s recanted testimony in the judicial system, and who hided their identities from me during these many years till today; Neither did I ever see their materials to accuse me, nor did I get a chance to defend myself; i.e. their underhanded retaliatory fascism crimes are coming from the judicial system, as well; — Miscarriage of justice is going on;

Peter Cao

Fascism may not exist in everywhere, but could come from anywhere;
_______________________________________________

— It is a common sense to all of us that … “Protecting human lives and their basic rights of living supersedes teaching, doing business or doing research”; … Before this case clarified, and those fascists along with this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun (who’s been advocated here) being concurred, I bet nobody would like to play up personnel associated with fascism crimes, the likes of Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler, nor cover up their fascism crimes and everybody has the obligation to fight against such fascism crimes;

I wish everybody relevant here would help push forward and clarify this decade long criminal case and find justice to such anti-humanity crimes along with such fascists as Sebastian Thrun and this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler are;

Wouldn’t anybody here deserve to know the truth of this decade long criminal case which is fascism by nature? What’s going on here?
_______________________________________________

Isn’t it a basic instinct that embedded into the spirits of us all to spontaneously fight against such anti-humanity crimes?

Peter Cao

Here is a quote about the moral issue in Sebastian Thrun’s career, according to an insider’s revelation (not mine) that:
_______________________________________

Thrun is shamelessly taking credit for work done by others. In Germany, his native country, prof. Dickmanns already had fully autonomous, fast, self-driving cars (160km/h) in traffic in 1995, long before anybody else, and 10 years before Thrun’s team joined the fray by participating in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge for self-driving cars. And the DARPA objectives were not that hard to achieve, as quite a few teams were able to reach the goal. One of them was a financial services company that had never dabbled in robotics before. All of this is easy to verify. Or take the online courses of Udacity. In Germany, prof. Loviscach started online university lectures back in 2009, and got millions of clicks long before Thrun jumped on the train 3 years later. The award-winning prof. Vornberger published his popular videos already in 2002, even before the Khan Academy, currently the most visible mass education outfit. (Germany has a long tradition of distance teaching – Univ. Hagen with over 80,000 remote students has specialized on this for decades.) Even at Stanford, Thrun was not the first. His colleague prof. Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, got hundreds of thousands of viewers for his youtube machine learning course, long before Thrun followed suit and put his own lecture online. Or take Google Glass. No wonder that prof. Babak Parviz, its creator, got miffed when Thrun started taking credit for that as well. More examples from Academia could be listed. If there is one recurring theme in Thrun’s carreer, it’s his (more or less subtle) attempts at festooning himself with achievements of others.
_______________________________________

— Would such a personnel really be up to the moral standard as a role model in the world of education, science, technology or innovation?

Peter Cao

And, at this stage, the most confusing part of this case is: — What are the real identities of judicial officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, who must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) handling Sebastian Thrun’s case and this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler’s recanted testimony? How can I see their materials to accuse/curse me and to mess up this case?

Can anyone here help us know? I have serious questions to ask them;

………………… P.S. …………………

— ZZZ/YYY/VVV are judicial officers (from Santa Clara DA? or from FBI? etc.), but not mafia, or are they? their practices as judicial officers have to withstand the scrutiny from the public; By law, they have to show us their real identities; they can’t hide their real identities from us for ever;

Jack Meoph

I truly hate driving my cars, and I even have a convertible roadster (Pontiac Solstice). The only time its enjoyable is when there is no one else on the road I’m on. With a motorcycle or my scooter, I can get around or through them when they’re idiocy becomes a problem, which is happening more and more with each passing year. Think of this: if there is no lump of grey matter involved in the equation, then the vehicles will be able to maintain speed (hopefully a lot higher speed than the idiotic 55 mph) on single lane roads. Have you noticed that no one passes any more? Even when there is a broken yellow, which are becoming more and more rare due to the highway dept. removing them whenever an accident occurs. Driving use to be somewhat fun, now its just another chore you have to get through because of the amount of traffic, the cops extracting revenue, and the distracted drones. Bring on the autonomous vehicles and end our misery.

Billy

I agree that robotic drivers will likely be a HUGE improvement for
motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians. But I think that congestion, if
anything, will get worse. Currently, congestion is sort of self
regulating. Many trips are taken based on how painful the trip will
be. If the roads are clear, people are more like to decide to take a
drive. If the traffic is bad, or weather is bad, many will decide that
the trip is not worth it. There have been many road expansion projects
that were supposed to handle traffic demands for the next 10 yrs, only
to find that after 18 months, traffic is at pre-expansion levels.
Traffic will expand, divert from other roads, etc in relation to the
road capacity. So… if these robotic drivers make every trip much less
painful, I think the congestion will be worse than it ever has been.

Gary J Boulanger

A Googlemobile drives down our Mountain View street about five times a day, mucking up the flow of traffic at the cross street, angering people constantly. I vote for human-driven motorcycles only!

Otto Maddox

I have to agree. I live very close to the “Googleplex” as they put it and I see these self driving Lexus 450H’s a few times a day at minimum.

On two occasions they have tried to turn left in front of me and almost killed me. The motorcyclist’s worst nightmare.

On one occasion I was able to stop in time and the car just turned like nothing was happening. On the other occasion I had to turn right, quickly, to avoid being hit and ended up riding next to the damn thing. The “self-driving” car’s occupants looked panicked and the car drove itself into a dead end and just sat there. I thought about pulling up next to it to ask them what was going on but I was afraid to get to close to the car. It might back over me or something.

We’ll see where all this ends up. Just like GM’s vision of the future was way off I’m sure we can’t do a much better job of predicting things either.

I just hope they don’t try to kill me on my bike in the future.

Tony Griffiths

But, driverless cars will not work when:
a) it’s foggy
b) raining hard
c) snowing
d) covered in road filth
e) road signs and markings altered by an accident ripping them apart just before the driverless car arrives…
f) the “paseneger” not noticing (as he/she updates a Facebook page) that a large truck is heading towards them out of control
g) etc.

As a victim of a series of fascism crimes associated with Sebastian Thrun (who’s been advocated here) along with this suspect Gabriele Scheler, and the likes, what I posted on the web are no more than facts, facts those fascists I challenged dare never publicly deny; I bet such of their fascism crimes would not be tolerated anywhere in human society; If anyone disagree, especially those in my public challenge, please give us a candid answer right here on this board, which part in my statements is not base upon facts? What’s going on here?

Simply deleting my comments would not make the case go away, and that would be unfair to all those who deserve to know, including all fans of MOTORCYCLE-DOT-COM;

Well, this is an issue of fighting a war against fascism crimes, but not an issue of political election; A funny excuse like — ‘Readers Flag & Vote Down, “Disqus” regulates’ (which is seriously doubtful) — would not make any change to the facts presented in my comments, nor downplay gravity of fascism crimes associated with those fascists in my public challenge;

I believe the majority of the population would not take side with those who had committed such fascism crimes presented in my posters, as nobody would like to lend hands to personnel associated with fascism crimes, and nor would anybody like to cover up their fascism crimes; — Well, there are exceptions, such as you Mr. Colonel Matumbo, but such exceptions, which count you in, definitely can not become the mainstream;

Anyway, playing tricks to make my comments of public challenge, which stand still, disappear is an action of cowardice, don’t you think so, Mr. Colonel Matumbo?

I didn’t challenge you anyway, nor feel meaningful arguing with you further 🙁

Colonel Matumbo

This is a Motorcycle publication. We Love Motorcycles.
Your “Rant” is Silly & Entertaining. Fascism Crimes….really?
Thanks for the Giggle.

This Motorcycle publication is complied by and for service of we people; and I believe no one among we people would like to associate himself/herself/itself with fascism crimes, nor advocate a personnel associated with fascism crimes, nor cover up fascism crimes, especially for those from a top-class publication as MOTORCYCLE; But then again, there are exceptions counting you in, which unfortunately can never become the mainstream;

I also believe that we people from MOTORCYCLE-DOT-COM would have the social rectitude to respect wishes from the victims and help us push forward and clarify this decade long criminal case and find justice to such fascism crimes coming along with such fasicts as Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler are; — Save your naive attempt to undermine the reputation and integrity of we people relevant to the world-respected MOTORCYCLE-DOT-COM, please;

—BTW, did I say – ” I didn’t challenge you anyway, nor feel meaningful arguing with you further 🙁 ” -, just now? Why did I respond so much to you? — Embarrasing of me 🙁

Colonel Matumbo

Your just Too Cute. Thanks for the Giggles. Have a Great day Sir.
Oh ya….. “Fasicts” whats that, A new 250cc Adv bike from Whats-sa-mater-wit-you Motors.

Peter Cao

You’d better leave such opportunity of grunting to those in my public challenges; Have a Great day to you, too, Mr. Colonel Matumbo 🙂

Would anyone like to be educated by someone who’s misbehavior has brought into our lives anti-humanity crimes which are fascism by nature and which had endangered human lives? Would anyone like to be living in a society under the jurisdiction of some malicious and cowardice officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara county, DA? or FBI?) who hided their identities from us while colluding with those fascists to cover up their fascism crimes and at the same time retaliate on victims?
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But how could such a simple campus atrocity case turned into a series of fascism crimes for over a decade long which got more and more innocent people involved? — Fascism prevails and miscarriage of justice is going on; — not all by my capability could handle;
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— Such fascism crimes have to be disciplined by laws and such fascists like Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun and the likes have to be brought to justice; they can’t escape from it;

Peter Cao

— http://t.cn/R7F1yQ0 attention to the 7 photo evidence — Here is the link to this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler’s website — http://t.cn/RPLEG7D — Would anyone with at least a bit sense of humanity and at least a fair education go to the extreme of cruelness to injure the body of another human being to that extent? — How could such a criminal suspect as Gabriele Scheler is be left alone by judicial authorities?

Peter Cao

Miscarriage of justice is one horrible horrible thing that could ever happen to human society; it could result in the victims being further victimized; it could produce retaliatory fascism crimes directly from the judicial system;

That day, a man named JayJones argued in comments part of an article titled “Get schools out of the 1890s” by Mr. Newt Gingrich on cnn dot com, that — “Apparently they are tolerated in human society, since neither of them have been arrested or imprisoned. What is your definition of fascist?” —

======== My Answer =======

Dear Mr. JayJones,

— Miscarriage of justice is going on, and that’s why neither Sebastian Thrun nor Gabriele Scheler have been arrested or imprisoned so far, while I as a victim am further victimized by their retaliatory fascism crimes; the case remain mystified and incomplete so far; and at this stage, the real problems are coming from the judicial system; Justice has not been done;

— The fact that Gabriele Scheler or Sebastian Thrun have not been arrested or imprisoned so far does not mean they are tolerated in human society; at least I know San Francisco State University fired Gabriele Scheler and Stanford partially fired Sebastian Thrun due to their involvement into such fascism crimes; and I am pretty sure both of them would be universally rejected as more and more people learn the fascism nature in their crimes;

— As I said before: “We are all made of human beings; you have your judgement, and we all have our own; Anybody with normal intelligence could easily figure out that there is something seriously wrong going on in this case;” I wonder who’s the officer handling Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun’s case? How would they explain the brutality from Gabriele Scheler on my body as evidenced in those 7 photos, in the first place? —http://t.cn/R7F1yQ0 —

— What are the real identities of judicial officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County, DA? or FBI?) handling Sebastian Thrun’s case and Gabriele Scheler’s recanted testimony? How can I see their materials to accuse/curse me and to mess up the case? Can you or anybody let us know? I have serious questions to ask them;

Peter Cao

Here is the statement of how miscarriage of justice is carrying on in Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s case, written in Chinese characters; save them for later use, please;
_______________________

— 有人能让大家知道那些后来处理本案司法官员（namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) 的真实身份么？我有严肃的问题要问他们；

— Again, ZZZ/YYY/VVV are judicial officers (from Santa Clara DA? or from FBI? etc.), but not mafia, or are they? their practices as judicial officers have to withstand the scrutiny from the public; By law, they have to show us their real identities; they can’t hide their real identities from us for ever;

Peter Cao

— The point is, though I am a victim while Gabriele Scheler a criminal suspect, my life has been underhandedly cursed and systematically retaliated by fascism powers behind Sebastian Thrun for over 10 years without an end ever since Gabriele Scheler recanted her testimony and falsely accused me at somewhere unknown to me in the judicial system; Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler’s follow up retaliatory crimes had been collateralled by some officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, they must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) who’s handling Scheler’s recanted testimony in the judicial system, and who hided their identities from me during these many years till today; Neither did I ever see their materials to accuse me, nor did I get a chance to defend myself; i.e. their underhanded retaliatory fascism crimes are coming from the judicial system, as well; — Miscarriage of justice is going on;

Peter Cao

Fascism may not exist in everywhere, but could come from anywhere;
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— It is a common sense to all of us that … “Protecting human lives and their basic rights of living supersedes teaching, doing business or doing research”; … Before this case clarified, and those fascists along with this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler and Sebastian Thrun (who’s been advocated here) being concurred, I bet nobody would like to play up personnel associated with fascism crimes, the likes of Sebastian Thrun and Gabriele Scheler, nor cover up their fascism crimes and everybody has the obligation to fight against such fascism crimes;

I wish everybody relevant here would help push forward and clarify this decade long criminal case and find justice to such anti-humanity crimes along with such fascists as Sebastian Thrun and this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler are;

Wouldn’t anybody here deserve to know the truth of this decade long criminal case which is fascism by nature? What’s going on here?
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Isn’t it a basic instinct that embedded into the spirits of us all to spontaneously fight against such anti-humanity crimes?

Peter Cao

Here is a quote about the moral issue in Sebastian Thrun’s career, according to an insider’s revelation (not mine) that:
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Thrun is shamelessly taking credit for work done by others. In Germany, his native country, prof. Dickmanns already had fully autonomous, fast, self-driving cars (160km/h) in traffic in 1995, long before anybody else, and 10 years before Thrun’s team joined the fray by participating in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge for self-driving cars. And the DARPA objectives were not that hard to achieve, as quite a few teams were able to reach the goal. One of them was a financial services company that had never dabbled in robotics before. All of this is easy to verify. Or take the online courses of Udacity. In Germany, prof. Loviscach started online university lectures back in 2009, and got millions of clicks long before Thrun jumped on the train 3 years later. The award-winning prof. Vornberger published his popular videos already in 2002, even before the Khan Academy, currently the most visible mass education outfit. (Germany has a long tradition of distance teaching – Univ. Hagen with over 80,000 remote students has specialized on this for decades.) Even at Stanford, Thrun was not the first. His colleague prof. Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, got hundreds of thousands of viewers for his youtube machine learning course, long before Thrun followed suit and put his own lecture online. Or take Google Glass. No wonder that prof. Babak Parviz, its creator, got miffed when Thrun started taking credit for that as well. More examples from Academia could be listed. If there is one recurring theme in Thrun’s carreer, it’s his (more or less subtle) attempts at festooning himself with achievements of others.
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— Would such a personnel really be up to the moral standard as a role model in the world of education, science, technology or innovation?

Peter Cao

And, at this stage, the most confusing part of this case is: — What are the real identities of judicial officers (namely ZZZ/YYY/VVV, who must have power of jurisdiction over civilians of Santa Clara County) handling Sebastian Thrun’s case and this criminal suspect Gabriele Scheler’s recanted testimony? How can I see their materials to accuse/curse me and to mess up this case?

Can anyone here help us know? I have serious questions to ask them;

………………… P.S. …………………

— ZZZ/YYY/VVV are judicial officers (from Santa Clara DA? or from FBI? etc.), but not mafia, or are they? their practices as judicial officers have to withstand the scrutiny from the public; By law, they have to show us their real identities; they can’t hide their real identities from us for ever;

SRMark

in 2035 I’ll be 81. When I’m standing in line for anything I just hope I have pants on…

joe joe

If it uses ethanol can it be pulled over for drunk driving? Who goes to jail when drinking, me or the car?

Don Andretti

When these autonomous cars get in an accident, Who goes to court? The manufacture or driver(Person sitting in car)?

Karryll Nason

Gabe, nicely done, as usual. Personally, I think I’d prefer a riderless car to an absent-minded driver who doesn’t use his/her turn signals and is busy doing something else other than driving the car. I’m with the Colonel.

Backroad Bob

Distracted
driving is the #1 killer of motorcyclists and the #1 distraction is
cellphones. This would eliminate those deadly distractions. Maybe
mandate their use for drivers convicted of distracted driving as an
incentive to pay attention when you are operating a deadly 2-ton piece of heavy equipment.
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